Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[Modern Angel]

I couldn't tell you what I'm basing it on even if I were basing it on anything. Which I'm not. You know how this works.  

[Zetor]

I could totally see GW2 launching by mid to late July, depending on how things line up.

What are you basing that on?  The beta event didn't even have two of the races available.  Worst case, they're aren't finished at all and that's at least 4ish (newbie areas) zones worth of content they need to build plus storyline stuff.

The earlier demos (gamescom etc) only had those two races (asura and sylvari) available, including (at least some of) their newbie areas. IMO a late june - early july launch is feasible.

[Shatter]

Its basically March now and beta hasnt opened up yet, is mid to end of March til June enough time to beta GW2 to launch status?

[Ghambit]

Considering there will likely be a midnight miracle patch the day before launch, yes.   

[Shatter]

Considering there will likely be a midnight miracle patch the day before launch, yes.   

oh yeah I forgot, thank god for those miracles

[tmp]

Another sneak peek at RPS

this time it's a glimpse of character creator and the Dragon faction newbie sex. I mean, plot.

(also: dungeons and crafting)

[Draegan]

That article really didn't say much at all.

[tmp]

That they'd have area for "40-50 hours into the game" suggests they may be learning a bit from their Conan experience and planning to launch the game in more complete state... but then, Funcom. So who knows, really.

edit: they also have interview with Ragnar discussing some of that stuff. Granted, it doesn't reveal too much either.

[tmp]

So, there's 30 min video from GDC out now, showing the stuff from the earlier sneak peek article.

Reasonably sized architecture in MMO, amazing. Rest of it, not sure. Although some will no doubt be pleased you can apparently move and fight at the same time

[Draegan]

The only thing I don't like about the game from a surface point of view is the combat animations and effects look extremely weak.  Love everything about the UI and build/gear loadouts though.

[blackwulf]

I really like the sound of the skill system, also, but I have one concern:  If everyone, eventually, is able to learn all the skills and just change them into their build on the fly, doesn't that kind of take away something from an RPG aspect?  I mean, there really is no committment to your build.  There's no, "Hey, get so-and-so, he's a really good tank."  It's more like, "Oh we need a tank for this fight?  Let me unlearn all my dps stuff and add my tank skills.  There we go!"

I dunno, I mean it sounds kinda cool on one level, but I feel like not having to committ to your build is kinda immersion breaking and takes away from the idea that you build an identity in another world.

[Draegan]

I really like the sound of the skill system, also, but I have one concern:  If everyone, eventually, is able to learn all the skills and just change them into their build on the fly, doesn't that kind of take away something from an RPG aspect?  I mean, there really is no committment to your build.  There's no, "Hey, get so-and-so, he's a really good tank."  It's more like, "Oh we need a tank for this fight?  Let me unlearn all my dps stuff and add my tank skills.  There we go!"

I dunno, I mean it sounds kinda cool on one level, but I feel like not having to committ to your build is kinda immersion breaking and takes away from the idea that you build an identity in another world.

Committing to a build has nothing to do with immersion.  Your character can eventually learn how to do lots of things.  You'll probably just need gear to be good at it.

On the side though, not every player is equal in actual skill.  Some people are good at tanking, some people are just special.  This way you just try to find someone who is actually good at doing whatever.  Then that person isn't stuck playing something that isn't fun except in certain situations.

[Lantyssa]

Many people have a preference, too.  I'm not interested in healing.  Ever.

[tmp]

The only thing I don't like about the game from a surface point of view is the combat animations and effects look extremely weak.

Yeah that's main concern, since it's something that you'll get to see a lot. A minor one could be the crafting interface -- at the moment it looks like you're expected to memorize the patterns for stuff you can make, which would be just less efficient than having game keep list of these... than really different.

[Megrim]

For all their talk about fancy skill mixes and the resulting fluid character design, it still runs on tank/healer/deeps. What a dissapointment.

[Kageru]

You need some concept of roles for their to be interesting group dynamics.

A class system gives a role and an identity whereas skill based systems can make you feel generic.

But it's ultimately all in the handling. Will be fun to watch. And a weaker more flexible class system somehow fits a modern setting better, especially if they can make the character progression more horizontal.

[Megrim]

Ya but, "concept of" is not "shoehorned into". It might be different for the greater part of the game, but the last fight in that vid was pure tank'n'spank. If they still design content to be played through a trinity, no amount of uniqueness in character design is going to matter in the slightest.

[Ghambit]

They've really focused on the synergistic nature of their skill system (with conditions, effects, elements, etc.).  It's not simply just tank n' spank because literally you're building your own 'deck' from millions of skill combinations.  Whether someone's a good tank or not isnt just based on player skill, nor is it based on some generic tank-spec... in THEORY it's supposed to be more dependent on synergies between skills both solo and within the group.  e.g. You may have a skill that works best against a 'confused' opponent, so you'll need a way to make said opponent confused... and perhaps to make them confused you need a few other things to occur, one of which may be from another player.

[luckton]

So what you're saying is, "This is PUG Hell 2.0."  Right?

[Typhon]

[...]Whether someone's a good tank or not [...]

is primarily based upon the system requiring a tank.  Similarly for a healing-focused role.  PASS.  FUCKING HATE THE TRINITY.

[Kageru]

Beats me why... any group is going to tend to have one person at the point. It's good if you can build tactics around that. The alternative is random aggro and DPS zerg and that sucks.

The problem with the trinity is when it's total dependency (we can't do anything, no tank) and clear optimals (we have a paladin, it's a sorta-tank). By the sounds of things this game does not even come close to having that issue.

[DraconianOne]

So, there's 30 min video from GDC out now, showing the stuff from the earlier sneak peek article.

15 minutes in, character giving (or not giving) a quest. 2 minutes of terribly scripted, fully voiced dialogue from one character. That's some pretty poor writing.

Was looking forward to this but that has put me off right there.

[palmer_eldritch]

For the solo player it presumably will be possible to balance the character with a bit of DPS, some tanking skills/equipment and maybe a bit of healing, and testing different builds might be fun.

In group play, if different characters are going to have different roles at all, then what could those roles be other than tank/dps/healing/crowd control? Maybe it's just a failure of imagination on my part, but I think any game which gives you some control over how you develop your character is likely to offer choices like more DPS vs more hit points, or a skill with high DPS vs a skill with low DPS and a stun - in other words, pushing you into roles we've seen before.

[palmer_eldritch]

So what you're saying is, "This is PUG Hell 2.0."  Right?

Or a new type of hell, in the sense that you won't quite know what someone is without them explaining it to you. They won't be able to tell you what they can do just by naming a class as in "I'm a shadowknight" or "I'm a Templar". Personally I think that sounds great but not everyone's going to like it.

[Draegan]

I don't think it's going to be that bad.  Builds will be posted, people will use templates.  Names will be made and the community will make "classes".  It happened in Rift and it'll happen here. 

Unless the game bombs and all you have are the dregs of the internet playing this game.

[luckton]

Unless the game bombs and all you have are the dregs of the internet playing this game.

Who do you think currently plays AoC and AO?   

[Draegan]

AO is still up and running?  Really?

[luckton]

AO is still up and running?  Really?

Still up and still getting upgrades. 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/29/anarchy-onlines-new-graphics-engine-wows-funcom/

[Kitsune]

They've been promising engine upgrades since 2006.  I'll believe it when it actually goes live.

[Kageru]

I keep hearing about AO... I'm vaguely tempted to down-load it and explore the mechanics. Does it have anything to offer to an MMO-mechanics tourist?

[luckton]

I keep hearing about AO... I'm vaguely tempted to down-load it and explore the mechanics. Does it have anything to offer to an MMO-mechanics tourist?

The random mission generator, nano (read: spell casting) system is somewhat unique, and the skills/perks system is kinda neat.  It was one of a few games that really kept my MMO-addiction sedated for a while as I wandered the waste-lands between DAoC: ToA and City of Heroes.  After that came out and subsequently WoW, TOR, etc, it's essentially dead to me.

[Cheddar]

I keep hearing about AO... I'm vaguely tempted to down-load it and explore the mechanics. Does it have anything to offer to an MMO-mechanics tourist?

No.

[Furiously]

The skill system is a bit different.

[palmer_eldritch]

Given that it came out when the only major MMOs were UO, EQ1 and Asheron's Call - before WoW and before DAoC - it was innovative for its time. I remember thinking it looked amazing at the time too.

[Surlyboi]

It did, but it made my ass look huge.